Chapter 35

Aeliana looked up and saw a petite figure staring down at her. She had light pink hair and sky-blue cat-like eyes. Her hair was up into two buns and she was in a light yellow frilly dress.

"I said what are you doing?" the girl repeated, causing Aeliana to snap out of her thoughts.

"I'm playing hide and seek."

"With who?" the girl asked with one eyebrow raised.

Aeliana signalled her to crouch down beside her. The girl looked for a moment before doing what Aeliana had asked.

"I'm playing with my older brothers."

"You have an older brother too?"

"Yes, do you?"

"Yeah! I love my older brother! He's nice to me and always takes care of me."

Aeliana smiled warmly at the girl's words, "Then where is he?" 

"I'm not sure, I was walking with him then suddenly he's gone."

Aeliana blinked before nodding, "Do you want to stay with me first?"

The girl raised an eyebrow, "Why should I? I'm sure I can find my brother!"

Just as Aeliana was about to reply, she noticed Claud's figure slowly coming into view. Not wanting to lose, she placed her hand on the girl's mouth and hushed her.

"My brother is coming!" she whispered.

The two girls stayed still until there were no sounds again. Aeliana removed her hand.

"Ugh! You put your hand on my mouth!? I'm the Daphne Beryl Scipiones, don't you know that!?"

She furrowed her eyebrows, "Who..?"

The girl, Daphne glared, hastily stood up, and posed cutely, "I am the one and only princess of the Bestarian Empire!!"

"Ooh, the princess of our empire." Aeliana clapped, playing along with Daphne.

She huffed, lifting her nose up high, "You clearly aren't educated enough."

"Well, I am only four this year—"

"You're four?" Daphne cut Aeliana off.

"Yes—"

"Hm never thought I would see someone younger than me," Daphne muttered, looking at Aeliana as if she were some animal.

'She really is acting like she's a princess…she probably is then but there's a lot of people who could pretend they are..'

"Anyways, Princess Daphne, do you want to find your brother?" Aeliana asked.

She decided to play along with Daphne since there was no harm in it. If she really was the princess then she didn't come off as rude and if she wasn't— well she could just say she was playing with her. 

Daphne seemed to be pleased by her formality and nodded, "I think he's already looking for me."

"So you're going to stay here?"

"I'll give you the grace of being able to be with a princess." she smugly smiled.

Aeliana glanced away and internally sighed. Maybe she should have just let her give away the hiding spot when Claud was around.

After a few minutes, Daphne groaned and grumbled, "My feet hurt!!"

"You can sit on the ground to rest your feet."

"Sit on the ground!? Why would I ever do that, especially in my cute dress!" 

"...You said your feet hurt so I thought—"

Daphne abruptly got up and frowned, crossing her arms as she said, "No way! I will not do that!!"

"Daphne is that you?" a voice suddenly called out.

Aeliana popped her head up to see who it was. It was a boy who looked around twelve just like her first brother. He had a short bob muted pink hair with big green doe eyes and was dressed in a simple white poet blouse and shorts.

"Brother!!" Daphne exclaimed and hurriedly ran to where he was, hugging him tightly in the process.

"There you are, I have been searching everywhere for you." he calmly replied and softly stroked her head.

'So that's her brother..'

Just as Aeliana thought of that, she made eye contact with him. He walked over to where she was and bent down.

"Why are you hiding behind the bushes?" he softly asked as he extended his hand out to her.

Aeliana glanced at the hand and then back at his face. She was mesmerised by his looks for a swift second before she snapped out of it and answered back,

"I'm playing hide and seek with my brothers."

The young boy raised his eyebrows and nodded, "I see..what is the game called again?"

"Hide and seek."

"How do you exactly play that game?" he asked with curiosity in his tone.

She scratched her cheek lightly as she explained, "Well one has to be a seeker and the others will be hiders. The seeker finds for the people who are hiding and the hiders hide. The first hider who gets caught becomes the new seeker in the new round."

He nodded, listening to her explanation before smiling, "Sounds like a fun game. What do you think, Daphne?"

Daphne let out a 'hmph' and said, "Not fun if I have to hide in the bushes."

He chuckled then turned to Aeliana, "Are you still playing?"

Aeliana nodded.

"Well, shouldn't you continue hiding then?"

Upon hearing those words, Aeliana remembered she was out of her hiding spot due to the two siblings had found her. Without wasting another second, she tried to hide once more but only to hear a familiar voice shouting.

"I found you, Aeliana!"

She froze on the spot and turned to where the voice was coming from. She saw Claud having a grin plastered on his face and she instantly pouted. What made it worse was that she didn't see either of her twin brothers.

As she made her way over to her second brother, she never removed the pouty expression. 

"Brother Claud, am I the first..?" she quietly asked, standing beside him.

He laughed and answered, "Yup."

She sighed and glanced over to where Daphne and her brother were. She raised her hand up and waved, "Bye bye."

"Hm? Who are you saying bye to— Your Highness!?" Claud followed Aeliana's sight and nearly choked on his words once he saw who they were.